Sisyphus... the king who was cursed to spend the rest of his days push a giant boulder up a hill, only to have it roll back to the bottom, forcing him to start over again. After many hours of frustration, he gets fed up and decides to rebel against Cronus by rolling his boulder into Cronus' castle in order to escape from Hades and to freedom. From there, Sisyphus and the angry boulder go on a journey throughout the ages of art (from Ancient Greece to Medieval times, all the way up to the Romantic era), meeting powerful historical figures and smashing their defenses to pieces.

This is the story behind ''Rock of Ages'', a game developed by Ace Team (the minds behind the also-very-bizarre ''ZenoClash''). The objective is to roll your boulder into your opponent's castle gate, while preventing him from destroying your gate by setting up towers, catapults, elephants and other traps to slow him down.

This game has nothing to do with the DefLeppard song or [[Theatre/RockOfAges the musical]].----!!Tropes used in ''Rock of Ages'':* ArtShift: Each era takes images from artwork from the era. [[spoiler:Cronus transforms into a picture of his in-game model (which is in 3D) during his intro.]]* AscendedMeme: Winning your first online battle wins you a rock with a [[{{Troll}} Trollface]] on it.* AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever: There are quite a few massive enemies. The bosses are even bigger.* AxCrazy: Bascially anyone with a rock, Sisyphus included.* TheBlackDeath: Personified as a skeleton simply named Plague.* BlowYouAway: Fans can be placed to blow a boulder off-course. Some of the higher-grade fans are [[EverythingsBetterWithCows cow]]-powered.* BreakingTheFourthWall: LeonardoDaVinci knows and tries to explain to Sisyphus that their world was made for "[[NewMediaAreEvil A deranged activity they call "Video Games".]]" Not that he really cares.* BossArenaIdiocy: Every boss except for [[spoiler: the dragon.]] Why are there CANNONS in hevean?!* ChristianityIsCatholic* CloudCuckooland* CaligulasHorse: the He-goat of the woods, after eating the wig of the previous president. * DemBones: Plague.* {{Dracula}}: [[UsefulNotes/VladTheImpaler Vlad Tepes]].* EverythingsBetterWithCows* ExcusePlot-->'''Advertisement:''' ''Your neighbor quite dislikes you. This probably explains why they've decided to roll a gigantic boulder in the general direction of your castle and it's denizens. And you know what? You haven't really been their biggest fan either. Which is why you will: A. Do everything in your power to deflect and destroy their little rock. B: Retaliate with your own enormous globe of crushing. Because they're jerks and they deserve it.''* ExtremeOmnivore: Bacchus.* FatBastard: Bacchus.* FluffyCloudHeaven: The Heavens.** FireAndBrimstoneHell.* Full Frontal Assault: While Sisyphus and Co arn't exactly doing the assaulting, nether he nor Bacchus put any clothing on throughout the game.* ForMassiveDamage: Each boss has an obvious weakness.** [[MediumAwareness The ]][[spoiler: Dragon]] [[MediumAwareness even flinches when his weak point is pointed at.]]* [[spoiler:GainaxEnding: At the end of his struggle Sisyphus is crushed by the falling Cronus during his victory dance. After the credits the Rock hops into a random hole and discovers its master dancing with the rest of the characters in what seems to be Hell.]]* GameplayAndStorySegregation: The hand that replaces the Rock whenever it falls off the track is never explained. It's styled after medieval portrayals of the hand of God, however.** [[Film/MontyPythonsTheMeaningOfLife DON'T STAND THERE GAWPING LIKE YOU'VE NEVER SEEN THE HAND O' GOD BEFORE!]]* GenreBusting: The game is a bizarre blend of bowling, platforming, tower defence, and racing.* GiantMook: Well, they're all pretty big because nothing man-sized can stop the rock. However, each of the environmental enemies can be seen as a giant version of another unit** [[ALoadOfBull Lammasu/Giant-Bull: big version of cow/elephant.]]** [[BIgFreakingGun Giant cannon: huge siege weapon.]]** [[BlowYouAway Cloud man: plus-sized fan.]]** Tower of Babel: gigantic, indestructible tower/wall.* GoryDiscretionShot: Each battle ends with one player running over the other, followed by a squish sound and am immediate cut to a victory screen.* GrapesOfLuxury: Some cherubs feed them to Bacchus...until he [[ImAHumanitarian eats the cherubs.]]* GroinAttack: [[spoiler: How you take down the David. OUCH.]]* TheHedonist: Bacchus.* AHellOfATime: [[spoiler: The ending.]]* IHaveManyNames: [[spoiler:Cronus A.K.A. Saturn. That's ''exactly'' what his [[BossSubtitles subtitle]] says.]]* ImAHumanitarian: Bacchus.* IJustWantToHaveFriends: The Plague. Unfortunately he vomits rats and [[WalkingWasteland anything he approaches dies.]]* JokeCharacter: The Block of Ages, which is a cube instead of a sphere.* KilledMidSentence: [[spoiler: Gandalf]]* KillEmAll* LethalJokeCharacter: The Block of Ages is slow-moving and unwieldy, but it destroys a gate in two hits instead of three and is completley indestructable, making it a viable option if the player has a good defensive strategy, and is even more dangerous on a map like L'aquilia, which doesn't have any turns or major obstacles. There's even an achievement for winning a multiplayer match with it.* IncrediblyLamePun: '''Lou'''is XIV's intro has him [[ToiletHumor using]] the '''loo''' in his throne.** Which, incidentally, [[ShownTheirWork did happen]]. That's where the term "throne" as slang for the toilet comes from.* MythologyGag: In this game, ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'''s {{Dracula}} and real life inspiration for the original {{Dracula}}, Vlad "The Impaler" Tepes, are one and the same.* OnlySaneMan: LeonardoDaVinci* NakedPeopleAreFunny: Sisyphus, Bacchus and Michaelangelo's David.* NewMediaAreEvil: LeonardoDaVinci sure thinks so.* PetalPower: Marie Antoinette throws massive flowers from her balcony, smothering and crushing nobles below.* ThePope: Julius II, AKA "War Pope."* PunctuatedForEmphasis: Performed by none other by Leonidas.* RageAgainstTheHeavens: Sisyphus vs Hades. FIGHT!* RammingAlwaysWorks: The only way to win is to ram your opponent's gate until it breaks. Size and velocity determine how much damage you deal.* RewardingVandalism: Driving your boulder into opponent's structures generates gold, which you can use to bolster your defenses between turns.* ScreamsLikeALittleGirl: Played for laughs. [[spoiler:Your opponent does this when you break down their fortress' door.]]* SiegeEngines: Catapults and trebuchets fire projectiles that chip away at a boulder's strength.* ShoutOut:** The art is a tremendous love letter to ''Creator/MontyPython''.** Ancient Greece recreates the pit scene from ''[[Film/ThreeHundred 300]]'' (The game ''numbers each Spartans'' in case anyone misses the reference), but it doesn't work out so well for Leonidas.** In the Middle Ages, there is a cutscene that serves as a ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'' homage, before revealing that the castle is [[MythologyGag instead inhabited]] by [[UsefulNotes/VladTheImpaler Vlad Tepes.]]** LeonardoDaVinci explains the fourth wall to Sisyphus while reenacting The Architect scene from Film/TheMatrix.** [[spoiler: Saturn has no small reseblance to the artwork Saturn Devouring His Son.]]** See YouShallNotPass and PunctuatedForEmphasis* [[spoiler: ShaggyDogStory: Sysiphis gets crushed by Saturn just after killing him.]]* SinisterMinister: Rochiele.* SongsInTheKeyOfPanic: When your gates are close to collapsing.* StandardSnippet: The soundtrack uses plenty of stock classical pieces, most notably [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dxr84zacOfY "Dies Irae" by Mozart]] for when you break through the enemy's gate [[spoiler: and when you fight the final boss]].* StealthPun: [[spoiler: The level where you fight Saturn is called Saturday, or "Saturn's day."]]* TheManBehindTheCurtain: Most of the characters become this during the level.* TheUnfought: The major boss battles end when the boss is defeated and the characters introduced in those levels apparently escape being squished.* UpperClassTwit: Marie Antoinette* WalkingWasteland: Plague. PlayedForLaughs.* WeaponizedLandmark: Michelangelo's David.* WidgetSeries: This is a weird game. This is a ''seriously'' weird game. It classes as something of a "Witchet" ('''W'''eird '''C'''hilean '''T'''hing).* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Plague.* WorldGoneMad* VillainousGlutton: Bacchus.* {{Yandere}}: Marie Antoinette* YouShallNotPass: Performed by Gandalf, [[spoiler: only to be KilledMidSentence.]]